The present invention relates to novel, improved methods and apparatus for installing dividers in file folders and to the folders produced by that method and apparatus.
File folders having a front panel and a back panel and a flexible tape hinge extending the length of the folder are used in very large numbers. Often, the hinge of the folder will be pleated so the folder can be expanded. Dividers are many times installed between the front and back panels of the folder so that the material filed in the folder can be separated into different compartments for the convenience of one using that material.
A machine for taping the front and back panels of a folder together to form a hinge is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,240 issued Aug. 16, 1988 to Simeone for APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY FORMING UNITARY BONDED BOARD STRUCTURES. However, there is to date no machinery which automates the process of taping the dividers between the front and back folder panels.
Now invented, and disclosed herein, are certain new and novel apparatus and methods which can be used to secure dividers between front and rear folder panels. The dividers are held in place by tape segments extending along the spine of the folder. These tapes are flexible, forming a hinge and allowing the front panel and dividers to be turned like the pages of a book.
In this novel apparatus and process, a previously made feedstock folder having front and back panels joined by a hinge tape is fed with the folder open and the panels in the same plane to a station where a divider is moved into position on one panel of the feedstock folder. Next, the divider is taped in place by a flexible tape extending the length of the folder spine. The divider is then flipped (or rotated) toward the other folder panel to expose the second side of the divider. A second tape is then applied to secure the divider in place in the feedstock folder.
In a subsequent step, the divider securing tape and the hinge tape may be crimped or creased to form pleats which allow the folder to be expanded to accommodate a lesser or greater volume of material.
Subsequent dividers can be installed in much the same manner as the first divider with subsequent dividers being moved into position relative to the feedstock folder with its previously installed divider(s) and then taped in place.
It will be appreciated that the loading of feedstock folders at the upstream end of a machine employing the principles of the invention, the removal of completed folders from the downstream end of the machine, and perhaps other steps such as the placing of dividers at the taping stations, can be performed manually, if one wishes. Such machines are to be understood as being within the purview of the present invention.